Sunshine Week Essay Contest

Win Prizes! Get Published!

The Andruss Library Government Documents Unit is sponsoring an essay contest in honor of Sunshine Week. Write 600-700 words on the following:

Before and after the November 2008 election, there were calls for the new president to make Freedom of Information a top priority in the new administration. "Over the past several years, the release and disclosure of government information, whether it be health, safety, environmental, financial, or national security information, has taken a backseat to misguided homeland security policies and efforts to protect special interests,” one critic claims.

Pretend that you are advising the new president. What government information would you make available? How would you balance national security against an open government? Please address both questions in your essay.

First Prize: $250 and your essay published

Deadline: February 9, 2009

For complete rules and more information:
http://library.bloomu.edu/pages/govinfo/sunshine.html

APA Style Guide to Electronic Reference

The APA Style Guide to Electronic References is now available on the Library Web site via the Databases (A-Z) page and the Find Articles & More > Reference Sources page, it is also available under Citing Sources. The Guide (an e-book in pdf format) updates and expands upon the Electronic Resources section of the Publication Manual of the APA (5th ed.)

Slavery & Abolition in the US: Select Publications of the 1800s

Slavery and Abolition in the US: Select Publications of the 1800s is a digital collection of books and pamphlets that demonstrate the varying ideas and beliefs about slavery in the United States as expressed by Americans throughout the nineteenth century. The works in this collection reflect arguments on both sides of the slavery debate and include first person narratives, legal proceedings and decisions, anti-slavery tracts, religious sermons, and early secondary works. The publications are all drawn from the holdings of the Millersville University Library and the Dickinson College Library, as well as each of their respective Special Collections Departments. The collection includes more than 15,000 individual pages of printed text and corresponding searchable transcriptions. This online resource is made freely available to the public, and we hope that providing these rare and important research materials will enhance teaching and learning, at all levels of instruction, about this complex issue.

The collection is located at http://deila.dickinson.edu/slaveryandabolition/

Andruss Library New Books RSS feeds

Andruss Library now provides RSS feeds so you can easily obtain information about new books added to our collections. RSS feeds are available for specific Library of Congress subject classifications and some specific Library Collections.

What is an RSS feed?
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a way to publicize updates from web pages by pushing the new information to a user via an RSS feed. You can learn a lot more about RSS from this Wikipedia article on RSS . (Or view this very low-tech explanation on YouTube.)

To use RSS feeds, you first need an RSS feed reader. You can use Microsoft Outlook 2007 as your feed reader. RefWorks, the Library's bibliographic management program, also offers a feed reader feature. And of course Google, Yahoo! and other providers also offer feed readers.

For a complete list of the the RSS feeds available, visit http://library.bloomu.edu/rss/.

As always, if you have any questions, ask a Reference Librarian.

Records for microform sets added to catalog

Bibliographic records for all individual titles in the following microform sets have been added to Pilot:

Pamphlets in American History: Civil Liberties (microfilm) (324 titles)

Human Relations Area Files (microfiche)(5165 titles)

Records for titles in additional sets will be added during the coming year.


Marilou Hinchcliff, Coordinator of Cataloging

Library Online Tutorials

If you need to know how to find articles in Andruss Library, you may be interested in viewing an online tutorial now available on our Web page. Listed under Tutorials > How to find articles, the tutorial offers four scenarios to choose from:

1) Searching for a specific, known article: "I have a complete citation for an article I need to find" (10 minutes)
2) Searching for a topic: "I don't have any citations. I just need to find some articles" (8 minutes)
3) Searching for a specific article, but missing some information: "I know what journal I need, but I don't have a complete citation" (8 minutes)
4) Learning the basics:"What's a citation?" (5 minutes)

The tutorials (which do not have sound, for easy viewing in the Library) clearly demonstrate how to find and use library resources to locate journal articles.

As always, if you need additional help, stop by the Reference Desk on the 2nd floor of the Library, call us at 570-389-4204, or contact us online, either via Ask a BU Librarian (for email answers) or via Ask Here PA (for live, online reference help).

New Elections 2008 Subject Guide

The Andruss Library Governments Documents unit has created a subject guide to the 2008 elections. The page contains links to web sites focusing on selected national, state, and local elections.

Go to the library's homepage, and click on Internet Resources, then Government Information. Or visit the page directly: http://library.bloomu.edu/pages/govinfo/election2008.html.

For more information about the Government Documents Collection, please contact Katie Yelinek, Coordinator of Government Documents, email: kyelinek (at) bloomu.edu, phone:x4228.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

We are very pleased to announce that The Chronicle of Higher Education is now available full-text, online to students, faculty, staff and administrative personnel on or off campus. To access, please go to the Library’s web page at http://library.bloomu.edu then click on Databases (A-Z), then scroll down to The Chronicle of Higher Education – Campus Wide.
This online edition offers several advantages over the print version:

• the Web site (http://chronicle.com) is updated throughout the day with the latest news in academe;


• the text from the current print edition is posted every Monday morning (http://chronicle.com/chronicle);


• a searchable archive of every issue published since September 1989 (http://chronicle.com/search);


• all the commentary and essays from the weekly magazine, The Chronicle Review (http://chronicle.com/review);


• all data from the annual Almanac & other special single topic reports are available in easy-to-search databases: (http://chronicle.com/special);


• online extras such as slide shows, podcasts, and videos are available (http://chronicle.com/extras).

Library Outcomes Assessment & Information Literacy Committee Reports Now Available Online

For the last 3 years, the Library Outcomes Assessment & Information Literacy Committee has given the King's College Information Literacy Assessment to graduating seniors to measure their competency in using information. Last year, 2006 - 2007, we were able to compare our students' scores with those from two other institutions. This year, 2007 - 2008, we administered the assessment to a small sample of freshmen as well as to a small group of seniors, and we obtained comparisons with three other institutions.

Overall, our students tend to have average information literacy skills, as defined by the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards. In comparison with three other local institutions (Carnegie Classifications Master’s Colleges and Universities I, Master’s Colleges and Universities II, and Baccalaureate Colleges – Liberal Arts), BU students’ scores did not differ significantly on any measure. However, BU students scored the highest of the 4 schools on Standard 1 (determine the extent of information needed), Standard 2 (access the needed information effectively and efficiently), and on Application (assessing their ability to apply knowledge). Conversely, BU students scored the lowest on Standard 3 (evaluate information and its sources critically and incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base).

To obtain the full 2007-2008 Report click here. The 2006 - 2007 Report is available here. Both reports provide more background information on the assessment tool and in-depth analysis of the results.

If you have any questions, please contact Linda Neyer, Chair, Library OA & IL Committee.

Adobe CS3.3 is on the way for Fall 2008!

Adobe CS3.3 is currently being purchased for Fall 2008. This includes the CS3 upgrade to Photoshop.

Library Virtual Tour

LibQual

Andruss Library has received final statistical analysis of the LibQual survey, which the library ran in the fall of 2006. In a comparison against two peer libraries as defined by PASSHE, Andruss Library scored above these peers on its ability to make information available to patrons and on the quality of the library building. Andruss Library scored below these peers on the effect of library service. The two peers were Humbolt State University in California and Radford University in Virginia.

Andruss Library scored very close to the PASSHE library average in all three areas, and scored above the average for all libraries who took the survey in all three areas. The results for Andruss Library itself, all PASSHE libraries, and the comparison of the library to its peers is available below.

• Bloomsburg University results
• Keystone Library results
• Peer Library comparisons

The LibQual survey, an online survey is a nationally-recognized standard for evaluating library service quality, and has been used by over 500 libraries worldwide. Over 1400 Bloomsburg University students, faculty, and staff took the survey last fall.